28-29 Feb 2008

12-13 Sept 2007

5-6 July 2007

15-16 March 2007

09 October 2006

Introduction

SPIDER:

SPam over Internet telephony Detection sERvice

SPIDER
is a two-years co-operative research project together with the European Union,
started in October 2007, aiming at endowing the SME partners with an
anti-spit framework to enhance their VoIP infrastructures and protect
their customers from abuse.

The SPIDER objectives are:

Design and implement a
framework for secure VoIP calls to avoid misuse of VoIP for spam
delivery

Specify and develop tools
for spam detection and suppression

Support different means
for detection that can be added based on user and provider specific
needs

Integration and testing of developed tools and solutions in
a provider's VoIP infrastructure

SPIT as a future threat

Interest in Voice over IP (VoIP) has risen substantially
in recent times, both from service providers and from consumers' point
of view. While the concept of transferring Voice over data networks
like the Internet is known
already for a long time, only now this technology has become a major
counterpart to the classic Public Switched Telephone Network
(PSTN).

With Voice over IP calls being offered for free or for a flat rate,
Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT) has at least the same
potential to become a major annoyance for users worldwide, as it is the
current situation with e-mail spam. From a technological
point of view, both communication methods have many similarities. For
example, calling a huge user-base through a VoIP solution can be very
cost effective for
any sender; it can also be easily personalised. While such a
development would naturally be annoying to individual users, a large
spread of SPIT would
reduce the attractiveness of VoIP in general and slow down its further
commercial development.

The design of the SPIDER SPIT prevention framework is based on
the
following aspects,

Benefiting from well
known SPAM prevention technologies, such as white and black lists,
filtering algorithms, User puzzles and charging techniques, by
investigating them to assess their suitability for VoIP and adjusting
them to take into account the characteristics of the VoIP technologies
and systems.

Investigating novel
approaches, which are derived from the VoIP technology itself, such as
audio analysis, inter-provider peering mechanisms or security
enhancements for the used signaling protocols.

The knowledge and tools
used by current and innovative schemes are implemented as separate
modules that are combined in a more general anti-SPIT solution

Offering a customizable
and configurable plat form that takes into account both, the needs and
capabilities of large service providers, as well as single users.